The Story so Far
Prologue The Fall of Triel Longbottom Omelia was a dragonborn blacksmith, who worked at a farm in Triel with her mother. They lived a humble life, peaceful, her father serving in the Everlong military. One day however, Mad King John and his raiders invaded the town, taking it over, and forcing the citizens into slavery. Omelia and her mother worked to sneak the young, old, sick, and afraid out of the town whenever possible, but John eventually caught wind that Omelia was orchestrating it, and sought her out. She snuck out of the city, and began training with the Order of Helm in Everlong, the kingdom to the South. It is now one year later, she has become a paladin, and she is ready to save her hometown. Her first mission is to head North, to Greenest, and meet with Leosin Erlanthar, a monk of Helm who has been monitoring the raiders, and gather intelligence on how best to retake the city. An Honest Day's Work Thia was an elf with no past, raised on the streets of Everlong, her only friends or family a pet mouse named Rufus, and her employer, a goblin bartender named Sizlak. He ran the Dragon's Kneecap in Everlong, and she managed deliveries. Today, same as every month, she was to head North to Greenest to pick up a shipment of Black Bottom Ale from the Dermyr Brewery. In looking to rent a cart, she meets up with Omelia, and their shared paths cause them to split the fare, as they left the kingdom. The Frog Sigrant is unstable. Unwell. He spent most of his life in rags, screaming to himself in madness, eating whatever animals he could hunt, at the top of a mountain. One day he wandered into some ancient ruins, where he found a glowing orange orb. This orb spoke to him, promised him power, glory, and all he had to do was accept its terms. He did, of course. Sigrant is now a fully fledged warlock, the orb floating in the air, following him around. It's first request: find some patsies, to pin anything on in case things go badly. That ranger and paladin seem accomodating, so he hops over to them, pays the driver some gold he's lifted off some dead bodies, and hopped on in, eager to see where the road takes him. Not My First Rodeo Smitty was an elf with far too much past. The sole survivor of the undead outbreak on Kassen, he sought to live alone in the woods where he wouldn't have to deal with the harsh realities of adventuring life. As the cart past him however, he saw a frogman, running towards it. A frogman was something of an instigator in his last group, and upon seeing the frogman hop into the cart and immediately ingratiate himself to the tough warrior and the elf ranger, he felt far too much familiarity. He emerged from the woods and insisted he join them, paying his part of the fare as well. Chapter 1 - Hoard of the Dragon Queen In Brief Look we're starting with Hoard of the Dragon Queen, just read that but replace the major overarching Mask of the Dragons stuff with basically nothing. In Detail Episode 1 - Greenest in Flames Session 1 The party has arrived at Greenest at dusk, and saw it in flames, a great blue dragon breathing down upon it with his terrible lightning breath. The frogman Sigrant immolated their driver, telling his new friends that the driver was planning on robbing them. They set inwards, shouting and fighting their way in boldly and quickly dispatching a small band of raiders. The wood elf ranger reunited with his old friend Roldare, a yet unknown second survivor of the Kassen Outbreak, who was as usual nervous, angry, and paranoid regarding his old acquaintance. Sticking to the shadows, they crept upon the keep of Greenest, using stealth, controlled demolition, and the whirling blades of the high elf ranger Thia, they eviscerated another band of raiders as they made their way in. Also, the warlock made a disguise out of one of the raider's corpses and used it to trick them into splitting up. The governor wanted to see them, but they were sleepy, so they took a nap. When they awoke, the keep was being besieged by the horrible dragon. Thinking quickly, the party arrived just in time to see the governor and his men blown away by the terrible lightning breath of the creature. The dragonborn paladin, Longbottom, then talked it out, and promised to return the dragon's horrid unborn child to him if he let them be. He agreed, and she would do well to heed him, as dragon's live long and hold word of honor in a high regard. They then took another nap. Who knows what new threat of this long night they shall awaken to... Session 2 They awakened in the keep to the sound of keep overseer Escobert the Red insisting they see the governor. Governor Nighthill had a favor to ask of them. There among the raiders was a woman in purple robes, obviously a leader in some capacity, along with a spellcaster, and several guards. He wanted the heroes to capture someone among the raiders and get information out of them, find out what she was up to, where they were hiding. Also, there were several of his townspeople hiding in the Church of Chauntea, and asked for their safe return. They found a secret tunnel, a way out that shouldn't attract too much attention. There they also met Adam of Tantalog, a bard who was going to use the tunnel to escort some sick and elderly citizens away from the city. The party went first into the dank urine-soaked tunnel, with Sigrant eating a rat for no reason. They then reached the iron grate at the end, which was locked. Adam had the key, but they'd have to go back like 20 feet to ask him about it, and instead decided to stealthfully explode it out of the goddamn wall. A band of raiders and kobolds came to investigate, and Thia hid in the nearby river like Arnold in Predator, and helped stealthfully take out all but one cultist, and one kobold. Immediately taking them back inside and interrogating them, they realized two things. 1 - The raiders are gathering treasure as part of some ritual to summon Tiamet. 2 - They forgot to go to the church. After exploding the two prisoners, they went out to the church for real this time. There, Smitty used his incredible elf eyes to scout the church out, and Sigrant somehow convinced the kobolds guarding the back door that the governor was a kobold sympathizer, and they all turned on the raiders. Sneaking the civilians out, they went back to the keep, where the kobolds were treated kindly, for like ten seconds before Sigrant and Escobert slaughtered them like cats in a burlap sack. They laughed in merriment, and Escobert gave him a flask of Fermented Ooze. The party was set to relax when Cyanwrath and the spellcaster, Mad Saint Jack approached the keep and issued an ultimatum. Fight him one on one, or his hostages would be killed. Omelia stepped up to the plate, and was immediately lightning-breathed on and then stabbed through. Cyanwrath and his men left the town, the raid finished, the hostages freed, as Escobert and some civilians tended to Omelia's wounds. The long night in Greenest was over, and now it was time to prepare to strike back at the raiders.